Education We Like to Ride Bicycles

I really like my SH-MO89Ls, given that they only cost £50. The one thing I was concerned about was the ski-boot style ratcheting strap (the one closest to the heel), as it strikes me as the most likely point of failure - not something you have to worry about with velcro straps or laces! But it's held up pretty well given that I've been wearing them almost daily for the best part of 15 months and 4,500 miles.

The A530 pedals, as you suspect, don't offer a ton of grip on the flat side, but they're definitely better than double-sided clipless pedals if you're wearing normal shoes! Shimano do a few different double-sided pedals - such as the M324 which look like they might be a little bit grippier on the flat side than the A530.

 

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Good stuff. Hope you enjoy them!

 

New shoes would be the cheapest way to go. I have flat pedals and ride in some basic skating shoes and it grips like a mot***********er. Don't remember slipping the pedal once with this combination. Ofcourse it doesn't work if you actually cycle TO somewhere, but then you couldn't use clipped shoes, either.

 

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Youll find lots of cycling shoes are bonded rather than stitched purely for ease but in my experience its not an issue I have done a few years riding in mine an had to do an 8 mile walk the other week, you cant really tell bar a bit of wear to the rubber

 

Damn, your A530s look much better in black than mine do in silver

As legoman says, I don't think you'll need to worry too much about the soles coming away from the upper: mine are still perfectly sound after 4,000+ miles.

 

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Tell me about the rain

I've actually finally given in and bought some waterproof overshoes. Unfortunately it seems that mountain bike shoes and overshoes don't really mix, as almost all overshoes seem to be made for road shoes, and the extra sole/grip on mountain bike shoes doesn't play nice. Hopefully these overshoes last more than five minutes, because I hate getting to work and having water running out of the bottom of my shoes

 

Bawjaw's have you tried the skinny MTB shoes, as in the type below, I unscrewed the studs an have been able to get a winter out of some BBB overshoes using cleats an a bit of walking

https://www.bikeinn.com/f/13626/136266936/northwave-scorpius-2-plus.jpg

 

Cheers for the suggestion, legoman. I've got myself a pair of Shimano S1000Rs and they seem to fit over my SH-MO89Ls (although I had to get size 44-47 overshoes for my size 44 shoes). We'll see how they bear up, but I've worn them twice this week and they've done a decent job of keeping my feet dry.

I have a quick maintenance question for you fine people: over the last few days I've noticed the steering getting a bit "notchy" and occasionally stiff, and there's a bit of a grinding coming from the steerer if I twist it when the front wheel's off the ground. It seems to be coming from the top of the fork or bottom of the headtube, rather than the top of the headtube.

Am I right in thinking that the bearings at the bottom of the headtube are probably goosed? If so, is this likely to be easy or difficult to fix/replace? I've been doing some googling and I'm a little daunted by the number of bits and pieces that make up the headset, and all the chat about spacers and so on I also have no idea what sort of bearings I'm dealing with or how easy it is to match up replacement parts with what I already have. I just don't want to end up with that classic DIY situation where disassembly is relatively simple but reassembly impossible

 

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Yeah, that was one of the things that I was concerned about. Mind you, I'm struggling to tell the difference between integrated, internal and cartridge bearings and to work out what I've got. All I know is that it's a threadless headset

 

Take some pics of the offending headtube?

Hard to know what you've got without seeing it.

 

Here a few pics. Please excuse a) the potato quality and b) the lack of cleanliness of the bike. For some reason I can't get imgur pictures to embed properly, so please also excuse the links.

https://imgur.com/a/jvzEt
https://imgur.com/hh8Mk0D
https://imgur.com/tNOAQ7p

Edit: embedded imgur album fail

 

I've decided on a bike finally. Reined in the bad ideas and went for something simple, reliable and looks astounding.

Reasons for the 1 x 10. On my commute my frame gets bashed and kicked by people who really don't give a crap about other peoples personal property. I will be fitting a chain device and a bash guard to keep the front cog in perfect condition. Likewise with a frame protection kit.

I have to park my bike on a train, and sit in allocated seats, stowing my bike away out of the way of everyone else best I can.



Spec Here : Whyte 805

So time for some whitewall tyres boys!

 

Good choice - I built up a ride using a Whyte T-120s frame a few years back, wasn't the lightest or stiffest bike I've ever owned, but Jesus did it LOVE to ragged about. I used it with a set of 140mm DT Swiss XMM's so the headtube was at 66 degrees, behaved like a mini-DH machine. Was using a 1x10 setup too, just made everything so much simpler and neater, worth the trade-off for the 1-2 rare times I felt like I really needed the extra rings.

 

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Okay, I think I've managed to identify the headset on my bike... I think Looks very much like an FSA No 10, which is apparently a "retainer bearing" semi-integrated headset.

I took the top cap off, removed the stem and the spacers and the bit just above the compression ring, but couldn't get that to budge one iota. Am I supposed to just whack the steerer down with a plastic mallet, then knock it back up until the compression ring comes out? I'm not averse to a bit of percussive maintenance but I don't want to bash the granny out of something unless it's actually going to help

It turns out that sourcing replacement bearings isn't entirely straightforward so I'm tempted to swap the No 10 for a No 11 or similar cartridge bearing type headset. I know that I need to watch the stack height - the No 11 is 0.2mm shorter than the No 10, is that likely to cause any issues? Also, I note that the No 11 is for a 49mm OD headtube whereas the No 10 is for a 50mm - but I've read elsewhere that people have swapped out a No 10 for a No 11 without any issues - do you guys think this will be okay, or should I just replace like with like? The two items are roughly the same price, but I can't help but feel that the bearings in my current headset have met a somewhat premature demise because they aren't fully sealed.

Any thoughts, tips or tricks? I'd very much prefer to sort this out myself rather than have to take the bike into the LBS, because they're always busy and I'd rather not be off the road for any longer than the bare minimum. Cheers!

 

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